| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: and our fellows standing round smoking; but I didn't see you in it. I
suppose you'd just gone away?"
"I was beside the men when they were hung," said the stranger.
"Oh, you were, were you?" said Peter. "I don't much care about seeing that
sort of thing myself. Some fellows think it's the best fun out to see the
niggers kick; but I can't stand it: it turns my stomach. It's not liver-
heartedness," said Peter, quickly, anxious to remove any adverse impression
as to his courage which the stranger might form; "if it's shooting or
fighting, I'm there. I've potted as many niggers as any man in our troop,
I bet. It's floggings and hangings I'm off. It's the way one's brought
up, you know. My mother never even would kill our ducks; she let them die
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: be viewed with a remnant of distrust, which would have prevented any
surprise if a long course of inoffensive conduct on his part had
ended in the commission of a crime; especially if he had any
reputation for knowledge, or showed any skill in handicraft. All
cleverness, whether in the rapid use of that difficult instrument
the tongue, or in some other art unfamiliar to villagers, was in
itself suspicious: honest folk, born and bred in a visible manner,
were mostly not overwise or clever--at least, not beyond such a
matter as knowing the signs of the weather; and the process by which
rapidity and dexterity of any kind were acquired was so wholly
hidden, that they partook of the nature of conjuring. In this way
Silas Marner |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: two months of this winter, it may be said that our city exhibited
the very anarchy of evil passions. This condition of things lasted
until the dawning of another spring.
It will be supposed that communications were made to the supreme
government of the land as soon as the murders in our city were
understood to be no casual occurrences, but links in a systematic
series. Perhaps it might happen from some other business, of a
higher kind, just then engaging the attention of our governors,
that our representations did not make the impression we had
expected. We could not, indeed, complain of absolute neglect from
the government. They sent down one or two of their most
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